it's CALLED shampoo
by CaptainReina
Summary: the fiasco with yura sparks the start of a ritual, a relationship, and kagome's soap revolution - aka the fic where kagome brings hair care products to the feudal era and everyone falls in love with it, but especially inuyasha


**i legit just wanted a fic where kagome cleans inuyasha's hair and he's shook at how soft it gets? and it turned into all kinds of ideas so ig this will be multichapter, but i promise there's really no overarcing plot, even the ship is minimal**

* * *

The first time it happens is after the fight with Yura.

"Split ends," he grumbles to himself. "What does that even mean?"

Kagome blinks, turns her head to him. _What does 'split ends'_ _mean? _she repeats internally, and his frown deepens at the baffled look she fails to keep off her face. Sure, this was the Feudal Era, but if Yura had used that phrase, then surely it was not so foreign a concept. The girls of this era seemed to spend some time on their hair care and styles, just like from Kagome's time, and their hair is too pretty and smooth for regular washing to not be a _thing._

"Do you . . . " she starts, then pauses, unsure how to phrase her question to not sound rude. "Do you not wash your hair?"

"I _bathe," _he snipes back, self-consciously bringing a hand to his hair. Of course he bathes, of course he washes the day's dirt and grime from his hair, else it would be a nasty, mucky gray. Everyone bathes - everyone takes a dip in the river after a long day, or they would start to smell.

Kagome allows the silence to drag on for an uncomfortable moment, looking reasonably embarrassed with herself, and Inuyasha assumes she is letting it be. Unfortunately, however, she continues to press on a moment later.

"With soap?" she queries, skepticism filtering through her tone, and he raises his brows at her and can't help a derisive snort.

_"Soap?" _he repeats, unable to prevent the sardonic grin curving his lips. "You think I'm some kinda lord?"

"Lord?" Kagome echoes, and he scoffs.

"Listen, lady," Inuyasha spits at her, irritation rising, "none of us poor scum get luxuries like that. Some of the village girls have nice oils they buy from foreign traders, but they're only for special occasions. They couldn't afford soap if they made double, no, _triple _the coins they get from selling extra harvest." He casts his eyes away from her, lips pulling down into something of a pout. "And demons like me? You can guess."

He's not kind to her. He's actually quite rude with his tone, but he can't bring himself to care. How privileged a life Kagome must lead, to have access to soap on a regular basis, to take care of those lovely raven locks nightly and dare to imply others should do the same.

He expects her to gripe back, to scold him, to at least defend herself, but she does not do any of those things. Instead, she worries at her bottom lip with her teeth, her dark eyes downcast, before she peers back up at him.

"Here," she says, reaching for his hand, "it's like - stop it, I'm showing you what she meant!"

Inuyasha reluctantly allows her to take his hand, and when it becomes clear he does not plan on yanking it away again, Kagome directs his hand to her hair.

"It's a little knotted," she says modestly as he hesitantly threads his fingers through those silky locks, as though it matters, as though the battle beforehand would not have destroyed any carefully crafted style. "But it's soft, because I keep it hydrated and healthy. Even the ends."

It is soft. It's like the finest silk that the traders bring from across the sea, woven with deft fingers and crafted with hair, and it feels so unfairly pleasant and cool against his fingers that it's almost as though it isn't even _there. _Even the tips of her hair have none of the roughness he expects, and the sensation is pleasant against his rough calluses.

And then she redirects his hand back to his own hair.

"But yours is - oh." She cuts herself off, hands faltering in his messy mane as her fingers come into contact with the silver locks, and he cringes away minutely, a vague sense of discomfort rumbling low in his chest. "It - it's very dry. Dryer than . . . I expected. And the ends, they're so dry that the strands separate from each other and fray. That's split ends."

He can understand it, now that he's felt her well-maintained hair, and there's a level of insecurity that comes with touching the frazzled ends of his own. It's not pleasant to touch, all rough and coarse. His fingers tangle in it far too easily. She continues to ramble as he frowns.

"But it's normal, I mean, when you don't shampoo and condition, and I doubt you get the diet you need for all the vitamins it needs to grow properly, and - "

"I get it," he snaps, jerking suddenly away from her touch. "There's nothing to be done now."

"Well, actually," she protests, "that is - give me a second."

They've been walking this whole time, and as they approach the forest clearing of the Well, she braces her hands on the edge and clambers onto it.

"Wait a second," Inuyasha blurts, indignance rising. Is she seriously planning to leave _again? _She was just home! "Where do you think you're going?!"

"Relax," Kagome chides him, hopping into the Well's depths. "I'll be right back!"

The telltale rays shine from the bottom of the Well as he peers over the edge, watching as she vanishes from sight. For a moment he considers going after her, but she did say she would return soon, and she has yet to seem a liar, so he takes her word for it. Instead, he seeks out Kaede, not too far from the Well, and starts to dig her back up. The old priestess says something to him, but he isn't really listening.

"Inuyasha? Where did he go - ?"

"Here," he calls out; really, he expected her to take longer, but she returns as quickly as she claimed. Kagome pushes through the bushes, a strange plastic bag hanging on her forearm and bandages wrapped around her hands from where Yura's hair had sliced them. "I'm taking the old woman home."

"How rude," Kaede grumbles under her breath, but there's little room to complain with her shoulder in that condition.

"I'll help," Kagome offers, reaching a hand out, but Inuyasha easily scoops Kaede up and hoists her onto his back.

"I got it."

He expects her to take the dismissal, but instead she follows him all the way to the village, and for some reason he can't bring himself to rush ahead like he wants to. It feels rude, even though he's not sure he wants to be in her company right now. But she's brought something over from her world that she has yet to show him, and the curiosity is getting to him, so he decides to wait until he finds out what it is before he makes the decision to run off.

They bring Kaede to her hut, and as the villagers crowd around to check on her, curiously, Kagome asks after a basin of water. A man whose name they do not know delivers it, and they are let be in Kaede's hut. A privacy screen splits a section of the room away from the rest; Kaede disappears beyond it to her bed roll in need of rest, so Inuyasha and Kagome are left alone around the fire.

"I brought something," Kagome says. It's obviously to fill the silence. Of course she brought something - he's well aware of the bag that's been rustling noisily on her arm with every moment. "I could only grab my own shampoo and conditioner, so I don't know how much it'll help, but it can't hurt, right?"

"Like I'd know," Inuyasha gripes.

Kagome rolls her eyes and nods toward the basin, and he gets the message. As he flips his hair over his head and starts to work the water into it, the bag rustles further, and from the corner of his eyes he sees her pull out two of her strange plastic containers, a comb, some odd plastic cap, a small cloth bag, and a towel fluffier than he's ever seen before in his life.

"I don't know what the chemicals would do to the fish in the river," Kagome admits as he raises his head slightly, wringing the water from his hair. "So we'll dump that water into the grass. That much should be fine."

There's a high-pitched _pop _as she opens one of the bottles, squirting some odd substance into her palm, and a strong, sickly sweet scent washes over him. It takes him a second past the haze of scent to realize it's the same smell as Kagome's hair, but amplified tenfold, and he covers his nose with one hand.

"Oh - " Kagome starts, frowning. "It probably does smell strong, huh? I'll make this quick, then." She scoots closer to him, and starting at his scalp, starts to rub the salve-like substance into his hair. "It's not soap, by the way, it's shampoo. It's specifically made for hair."

"Liquid soap?" Inuyasha asks, voice nasally with his nose pinched as it is. Kagome's fingers are gentle on his scalp, soothing, and he lets his eyes fall closed as she works. It's been a long day of fighting annoying hair demons, after all, and he's tired enough to relax under her touch.

"Shampoo," she repeats insistently. "Liquid soap is different. And it's not for your body, it's for dishes. Liquid body soap is called body wash."

"Things are complicated in the future," he snorts, and he can practically feel her roll her eyes.

"Things are more _advanced," _she corrects him.

They fall into silence as Kagome works on his hair. There's so much of it that she ends up using even more shampoo, but eventually, it's all worked into a sudsy lather piled on top of his head. He leans over the basin once more at her direction, and Kagome washes the shampoo from his strands with gentle hands, working out tangles as nicely as she can.

"Whoah." When they're finished and he lifts his head, he realizes with a start that the water is extremely murky, a grayish brown that has his cheeks flaring in embarrassment. Was his hair that dirty?

"Some of that is the shampoo," Kagome tells him quickly, undoubtedly aware of his thoughts. "Here, wrap this towel around your shoulders."

He does as he's told, and lets his wet hair fall onto it after. The towel is so plush and soft and he can't help rubbing a corner between his fingers, fascinated. Kagome approaches him with the other bottle, the comb, and the small bag, which she zips open, pulling out some black hair clips.

"More shampoo?"

"Conditioner." Kagome gathers up most of of his hair, leaving some at the bottom, and uses a few clips to secure it to the top of his head. "It . . . well, it conditions. Moisturizes your hair. It doesn't spread as well as shampoo, though, so it'll take a lot to cover all your hair. It helps take out the tangles, too."

He takes her word for it. The conditioner doesn't smell as strongly, but it's still intense, so he covers his nose once more. Kagome takes to switching between lathering his hair, combing it out, clipping it back, and freeing another section. It takes a long while; Inuyasha has a _lot _of hair, and said hair is full of tangles, but eventually, Kagome undoes all the clips, twists his hair into a loose bun, and clips it all into place on his head.

"One moment," she says, and reaches for the plastic cap, carefully fixing it on his head. "There. Now it won't rub off on anything."

She stands, stretches, and hoists up the water basin, straining only a little under its weight. He follows her, leaving the towel behind now that there's no wet hair to soak his clothes, and they pad around to the back of the little hut where the dirt path ends and grass begins. She tips the basin and they watch as the water sloshes out, seeping slowly into the dirt.

"You're not gonna wash this out?" Inuyasha asks with increasing confusion, and Kagome actually laughs, turning to head toward the river.

"You don't wanna do it with that dirty water," she teases, as though it's obvious. "Besides, we're going to let that conditioner sit for a little while so it can do more for your hair. By the time we get back with fresh water it should be alright to rinse."

So he accompanies her down to the river, fills the basin, and this time he chooses to carry it back to Kaede's hut. They enter quietly - Kaede is probably asleep by now - and he lets her carefully rinse out the conditioner. He has to lean over uncomfortably far for her to start at his scalp, but as she explains, because of the nature of conditioner and how it sits in the water, she has to go from root to end to wash it all out properly.

"All done," she chirps, handing him the towel once more. "Twist out the water - _gently - _and then dry it like this."

Once he has wrung out most of the water, she shows him a scrunching motion with the towel that she claims is the most kind to hair while also being effective, and he sets forth on the arduous task that is drying the absurd amount of hair on his head while Kagome empties out the water basin once more. Now that the product is gone, the smell is bearable, and he throws the towel over his shoulders when he has his hair as dry as it's going to get.

"Try not to sleep until it's fully dry," she instructs him.

"Let's eat, then," Inuyasha suggests, stretching. "I'll catch a couple fish."

"Please," Kagome hums, already drawn by the idea of a warm meal and acceptable cooking. "I can make some rice."

Their plans agreed upon, he pushes past the noren covering the doorway and pads back down to the river. He can still hear Kagome rummaging around the hut - locating Kaede's rice store, putting the pot over the fire, grabbing the pitcher of filtered water to pour in - and by the time he's finished fishing and joins her the rice is nearly done. Once the fish is thoroughly cooked, they eat in contented silence.

They finish up and sit in the quiet a while longer, until Kagome's eyelids are drooping. He shoos her off to sleep. She protests very little before settling down for the night, undoubtedly exhausted by the day's events and drowsy from the full meal. He is, too, but she had told him to stay up, so he determinedly settles against a wall and waits.

He doesn't know how long it takes - he's pretty sure he drifts off at some point - but finally his hair is dry to the touch. He isn't totally positive, at first, because it's so cool to the touch and soft and _moisturized, _but no water comes off his fingers when he rakes them through his long strands. He meets a surprising lack of resistance as he finger-combs his hair, usually so tangled and painful, now smooth and obedient.

It almost feels a sin to lay down on his hair, to even let it touch the ground. As he settles down to sleep, unable to keep his fingers away from his hair, he peers across the fire at Kagome's silky locks and wonders how she does it.


End file.
